Project updates
Keep team members informed on the health and progress of projects in Linear and Slack.
Overview
Project updates are short status reports on the health of your projects. They can be viewed in Linear and sent directly to Slack channels. They consist of two main components: a health indicator that provides a high-level signal of the current state of the project, and a rich text description to provide more in-depth information on the status and progress.
For more granular updates on individual projects, you can additionally configure project notifications to your personal Inbox and Slack.
Configure
Configure project updates for your workspace under workspace settings. Select a Slack channel where updates will go (we recommend a dedicated one such as #project-updates) and set optional reminders to remind project leads to post an update at a regular cadence (e.g. post an update weekly on Wednesdays).
Configure notifications for specific projects by clicking the bell icon from the project view (it's next to the Updates button). From there, you can link the project to it's own Slack channel (e.g. #p-project-name) to send updates and notifications there. You can also enable personal notifications in account notifications settings.
G then S to go to Settings > Workspace > Projects to configure updates
Shift + U to open project updates panel on a project page
O then P to go to a project and enable project notifications to Slack channels by clicking on the bell button
G then S to go to Settings > Account > Notifications to configure personal notifications for projects
- Navigate to any project or roadmap view to post an update by clicking Update in the top right corner
- Click on your avatar to go to Settings > Account > Notifications to enable personal notifications for projects
- Navigate to any project and enable project notifications to Slack channels by clicking on the bell icon
settings to go to Settings > Account > Notifications to enable personal notifications for projects
open project to go to a project and enable project notifications to Slack channels by clicking on the bell button
Basics
Create project updates
The easiest way to write updates is by opening the reminder in your Inbox. You can also write updates from any project or related initiative view by selecting the Project Activity button in the top right of the view.
If you're blocked from doing so, check that you're a member of the project by going to project details (⌘/Ctrl I). Only members of a project can post updates.
View project updates
Project updates can be viewed from any individual project, team projects, or initiative view by clicking on the Project Activity icon or by using ⌘/Ctrl + U keyboard shortcut.
Project updates appears in chronological order and anyone (not just team members) can react with emoji to express sentiment.
You can also view project updates from Slack (see below to configure those).
You can additionally copy a link to share with your team, or copy a project update as markdown through the ⌘/Ctrl + K menu.
During weekly syncs, we'll review project updates directly in Linear. We take a few minutes to silently read them and emoji react depending on how we'd like to discuss them in the meeting. ✋ means you have a question, ▶️ means you want to see a demo, and we usually see a few others like 🚀🙌 🥳.
Progress reports for projects
Project updates include a concise overview of project progress since the last update. It covers information such as project delays, changes in the target date, assignment of new leads, progress towards milestones, and overall progress. These updates help you track project changes and effectively communicate progress to stakeholders.
A detailed list will be generated showing changes, and you can optionally hide those details from being included in your update if needed.
Additionally, progress reports are automatically shared on Slack through the project updates Slack integration discussed below.
Send project updates to Slack
Configure all project updates in your workspace to post to Slack in project updates settings or Slack integration settings. This will become a feed of all company projects, so we recommend using a dedicated channel (e.g. #project-updates).
To additionally send a specific project's updates to a different channel (e.g. #p-project-name), click on the bell icon in the project view. You can only link one Slack channel to an individual project in Linear, so project updates will go to the same channel as project notifications if you have those configured. Edits in updates will also be reflected in Slack if you have the Slack integration enabled.
Project update comments
It's possible to comment under project updates to discuss them further. People who wrote the update and all people who participated will be notified about new comments in their inbox.
Project update comments sync to Slack
If you have setup project updates to send to Slack, comments to the project update will sync to Linear, in the same way we sync Slack comments on issues.
Project update reminders
Turn on project update reminders for project leads in your Project updates settings. Once turned on, you can decide the frequency reminders should be sent as well as the day and hour (in each lead's local timezone) they should be sent on. Project update reminders are for projects that are "In Progress", and to the project lead only.
When selecting a reminder hour, please note that the reminders will not fire precisely on the chosen hour, but between the hour selected and the hour following.
For more information around receiving project update reminders, please see the FAQ at the bottom of this page.
Project staleness
When project update reminders are configured, in progress projects overdue for updates will reflect this for easier monitoring. The affected project's health icon will show a when the project more than 2 days overdue for an update, and will display as grey when the project is a 9 days or more overdue for an update.
Project notifications
Link projects to a specific Slack channel to see notifications when an update is posted or when issues in that project are created, receive comments, and/or have changed status. Anyone in Slack can see the notification details and anyone with a Linear account can take actions on the issue directly from the Slack notification (e.g. comment on issue).
Personal notifications
Receive a notification in your Inbox whenever a new issue is created in the project, a comment is made in a project issue, or an issue is marked as completed or canceled. You can choose which notifications you want and manage these notifications by clicking the bell in the project view or under account notifications settings.
There is also the ability to subscribe for project updates and receive inbox notifications when a new project update for this project is posted.
FAQ
Make sure that project updates have been turned on for your workspace. Click G followed by S and click into Project Updates in your workspace settings to ensure they have been turned on.
Yes. When viewing project updates, you'll see the edit pencil icon appear when hovering over any project updates you created. If you are not the creator of the update, you will need to ask the creator to make the update.
Yes. Just click on the … icon beside the project update you'd like to delete and select the delete option from the pop-up menu which appears.
Yes. When viewing a project update, hover over it to see the emoji reaction icon appear. Click to add an emoji reaction.
To receive a project update reminder, the following applies:
- You must be the project lead
- The project must have "In Progress" as its status
- You must not have posted an update in the last 24 hours
If the above conditions are true but you are still not receiving project update reminders, reach out to us for help.
Instead of posting project updates to each of the channel separately, we now post one project update post to a main channel and then forward this post to other channels.